Home » Posts tagged 'Brunelleschi'

Tag Archives: Brunelleschi

Museum Day and THE Meal

May 4, 2024 5:21 pm / 3 Comments on Museum Day and THE Meal

To stroll the Tuileries on May 3, stretching from the Louvre to the Place de la Concorde, is a very Parisian activity. The walk through the Tuileries with its formal hedges, fountains, and flower plantings is very pleasant. Today we noticed bleachers had been set up around the Egyptian obelisk at the center of the Place da la Concorde in preparation for an upcoming summer Olympics sporting event. How photogenic the setting will be!

Louvre Museum (Palais Royal Musee du Louvre)

Louvre Pyramid, a glass and metal structure, completed in 1989, serves as the main entrance to the Louvre Museum.

Eiffel Tower, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889, as viewed from the Carrousel Garden in the Tuileries

At one end of the Tuileries is the L’Orangerie, the museum that houses Monet’s Water Lilies collection of paintings depicting his home and gardens in Giverny. Monet designed the two rooms of the museum to house his masterwork. Painted at differing times of the day to catch the light changes on the lilies in his pond, with weeping willows dipping into the water, his work is a 360 degree panorama of impressionism at its best.

The Waterlilies rooms in the MUSÉE DE L’ORANGERIE were designed by Claude Monet as a space for meditation.

The Musée de l’Orangerie houses eight of the great Nymphéas [Water Lilies] compositions by Monet, created from panels assembled side by side.

The Waterlilies rooms in the MUSÉE DE L’ORANGERIE

Monet’s “Water Lilies “ Exhibition in Paris’s Orangerie Museum- “An astonishing painting, without pattern, without borders”, commented the critic Louis Gillet at the opening at the Orangerie: “there is no sky, no horizon, hardly any perspective or stable points of reference enabling the viewer to orient himself, just completely arbitrary boundaries between actual space and pictorial space…”

From here, Randy and Melisa, our friends, and we hiked to see the Rodin Gardens and Museum. Melisa was particularly interested in viewing “The Thinker” and “The Kiss.” We were able to see many of Rodin’s sculptures on the wonderfully tranquil grounds of the manicured gardens of the mansion built in the early 18th century. Imitating art, Randy struck the thinker pose at the base of the bronze work. “The Kiss” is a marble work housed inside the museum along with many other marble works from antiquity.

Musee Rodin in Paris, founded in 1916, displays the sculptures of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) and Camille Claudel (1864-1943).

The sculpture garden displays Rodin’s monumental bronze work, The Thinker.

Randy is imitating art as “The Thinker.”

The sculptured garden of the Rodin Museum

Rodin’s The Kiss inside Hotel Biron, the mansion that houses Musee Rodin

Wayne and Kathy at Le Jardin de Rodin in front of “The Thinker”

After a long day, Randy charted our course back to our hotel via metro underground. The Paris subway system is extensive and relatively easy to use. The subway stops are clean and bright; unfortunately, while elevators and escalators are available, stair climbing and descending is unavoidable. Once again, we noticed soldiers walking around, fully armed, and we realized preparations are fast underway for the summer Olympics. The National Assembly of France has Olympic colors in statuary representing various sports adorning its front.

Paris is preparing for the summer 2024 Olympics.

Our evening was reserved for a meal at Le Train Bleu, one of Paris’s finer restaurants. I had made the reservations several months in advance. Housed in Gare de Lyon, a train station, the restaurant was built to accommodate wealthy travelers and to showcase the sights of France through paintings on the ceiling and walls. This was formal dining in a magnificent atmosphere of gold gilt and statuary. Smartly attired wait staff changed plating, silver utensils and glass ware depending on each course’s order. Randy had a lobster starter, and I ordered asparagus with warm olive marinade. The wonderful meal for the four of us unfolded from there. I had selected crepes Suzette for my dessert, and the flaming delight was prepared table side. It was a beautiful evening in a magical atmosphere.

Randy, Melisa, Kathy, and Wayne prepare to dine at Le Train Bleu on May 3, 2024, at Gare De Lyon Train Station in Paris, France.

Kathy and Melisa inside Le Train Bleu

Florence — You Were on my Mind

September 1, 2015 8:41 pm / 11 Comments on Florence — You Were on my Mind

As soon as the train pulled into Florence, Kathy and I felt comfortable and relaxed. We had spent over six weeks here a few years ago, mostly in an apartment in the old town. It is a place we love.

We walked the city old town and shopped the San Lorenzo market. We noticed that it was remarkably clean. Later, we saw the new electric vacuums on wheels that one person operates by walking with the nozzle followed by the large electric bag machine that is manipulated by the electronic handle in the other hand. Several streets are overtaken by the market, selling leather goods, wood products, scarves, and souvenir items. We entered the new central market that sells fresh food products of every kind, fish, foul, pork, beef and the wonderful cheese and bread vendors, along side spice shops and organic food products. A new high end Italian food area has been added to the second floor, and we will eat a lunch there.

Everything was great until Rhonda took a spill. Too much to see and many hidden steps. After she recovered and realized that her “bad knee” did not take a direct hit, we resumed the day. Rhonda and Allen went to the hotel for Rhonda to check everything out. She is fine. This is Rhonda’s second spill–the first one was in Bologna. We ran upon a bronze statue of a lady in a hammock, and I suggested that Rhonda lay down on the pedestal under the lady and imitate the statue. For those of you who know Rhonda–she is up to anything fun. Allen and Kathy were not encouraging at all. Unfortunately, as I snapped away, Rhonda’s lace sweater got caught in the bronze hammock and as she tried to undo it, she simply rolled off the pedestal and onto the ground…only a foot drop, but scary, none the less. I have some good pictures, but Rhonda has threatened harm if I publish them, but they are on sale to the highest bidder.

We spent a relaxing afternoon walking the Ponte Vecchio, the famous gold sellers’ bridge, and going into the Cathedral with is magnificent dome–both inside and out. Designed and engineered by Brunelleschi, it was and still is a masterpiece of architecture. The interior dome, painted by Vasari, is resplendent.

All of us went to a favorite Florence restaurant of Kathy & me for a delightful evening laughing and visiting in a brick and plaster-vaulted bit of Italian heaven.

WEG – September 1, 2015